My boy is two!

My beautiful boy turns TWO today.
I can not believe it.

A bit about my little man:
Names
We still call him "The boy"
Momma calls him "my little man"
He calls himself "tee-tin"
Talking
He has more words than I could even begin to type.
He is starting to talk in 3-4 word sentences.
He can't say his "F"s, they're replaced by "P"s. It is quite possibly the cutest thing ever when he says things like "pish" and "peet". My favorite is when he laughs and says "I parted"... :)
He loves to sing "songs" which consists of air drumming or guitar accompanied by "singing" every name of ever person he knows. Most repeated are "papa" and "Dan-yo"
Favorites
His favorite toy is quite obviously his new, real drum set, and his "cars".
His favorite person alive right now is Daniel, my 8 year old brother. He will say his name about 20 times on average per day.
Daniel has graciously taught him how to shoot guns, play punch fights, play guitar hero, and cross his arms and go "humph" when he's mad. Hey, someone's gotta do it sooner or later right?
Really though, Daniel has proved to be wonderful with my kids, and it's no wonder why Ethan loves him like a best friend and brother.
His favorite TV show is The Upside Down Show, which he only gets to watch with Daddy when he stays up late on weekends.
His favorite movie (said MOO-bee) is anything Veggie Tales (said "tales").
He is also enjoying his baby muppets movie now too.
His favorite Food:
He was on a total banana kick for about 2 months, his daily routine was to get up, get in mommas bed, drink a sippy of juice, watch Jack's Big Music Show, go down stairs, and have a banana (10 if I'd let him).
Now he will not eat anything that's not primarily composed of CARBS.
He loves toast, muffins, dry bread, waffles, pancakes, cereal, crackers (called cookies), and his sister's puffs.
(This is not his mamma's choice, but none the less it's the way it is)
Random Tid Bits
He has out grown most of his bow-legged-ness, but still walks a little pigeon toed.
He just figured out how to jump and get both feet off of the floor about a month ago - it was a work in progress for a long time!
He continues to grow up looking more and more like his daddy.
Mom can't get enough of his cheesy, all teeth and dimples smile.
He loves to pretend to crochet or knit like his momma, but adores and copies every little thing his daddy does.
He has officially turned in to a little boy, being that he now thinks it's funny (punny) to burp, fart (part), and make awful boy noises.
He asks to go read books when he wants to go to bed, and generally will not get out of bed in the morning, until mom comes in to get him.
He absolutely loves having his Grandpa Joe, Grandma Jen, Auntie C, and Daniel next door. He would live there if we'd let him. He gets a kick out of "being mean" to Grandma Jen - and will not tell her he loves her (unless she gives him junk food).
A lot of people predict he'll be one of those kids on The Tonight Show, drumming at age 4 - Mom and Dad would be proud!
He has an arranged marriage to his mom's best friend's daughter - Amelia.
He loves to play with the trains, spring horse, and piano at his Nana and Papi's house.
He is in 18-24 month clothes, and size 6.5 shoes. He hates wearing socks, but LOVES shoes!
He is still vegetarian but is allowed to eat things that have small amount of cheese in them.
He is a wonderful big brother, cares about his sister immensely, comforts her when she cries, is next to never jealous, and mom and dad think they'll be best of friends.

I never knew I'd love something as much as I love my little man.
Happy TWO today lovie!

We're licensed!

We are foster licensed!

Yay!

That means we could get a call about kids any time now!

A blessed Christmas...

We have had the most blessed (busy) Christmas EVER!
My future prodigy got (two!) drum sets!
Karl and I got a weekend away at Bay Pointe Inn
I got gift certificates to get my hair done, to Schuler's, and Old Navy and Meijer.
Karl got gift certificates to Meijer for beer only, Guitar Center, and a backpacking tent.
We got night stands, storage, and lamps from IKEA that match our bed frame.
The kids got loads and loads of toys, including a child-sized guitar, storage/organizers, Evie's first kitchen and babydoll, pushing, and riding toys, trucks, and books galore.
Oh, and Karl got a pair of grown up footie pajamas that are sock monkey!
As if that weren't enough, my parents got me a diamond circle necklace, and a beautiful ring with diamonds for those few and far between occasions when I dress up.
I am not one that gets wrapped up in materialism, but how could you not get excited about that!
We have just been so blessed, I feel like kissing everyone.
We had a lovely weekend with family, ate til we nearly burst, and are drowning in the after-math of un-boxing all the toys for my ever impatient boy.

Speaking of impatience - we are STILL waiting on our foster license!
Can you believe it!?
Our licensing worker doesn't know what the hold up is - Lansing is being super slow.
She's inquired what the deal is - so hopefully we'll here something soon.
We were expecting to have kids here by now, so we're just twiddling our thumbs, waiting on God's perfect timing.

What a great time of year.

Change of plans?

So, I was suppose to have my license by Friday, or Monday - and I called my SW yesterday to check in...
No call back.
We also fell in love with a "waiting child" online - and called to find out if that's ok - and if it is, how we would go about it...
No call back.
I looked through our licensing rules, and it says in our contract that we won't pursue any other child with out the permission of DAB.
I talked to the SW of the little boy we're interested in, and she seemed eager to see our home study, and we are excited to pursue him, but have to move quickly if we're going to ---
Still haven't received any calls today.
I hate the whole "hurry up and then wait" aspect of everything.
Hopefully we'll hear something soon because I'm going nutty.

Later:

So, just as I finished typing this - I talk to my social worker
We got the go-ahead to pursue the little boy.
I didn't mention that he was in FL because I didn't think it was important. There are laws restricting bias due to location.
So, I got all excited, called the Adoption SW and asked about the situation.
Then, big let down, our agency does not do out of state adoptions, unless they're private adoptions (big $$)
So, I call the social worker in FL and she says to see if I can get a Home Study from the State, and that every state legally has to have an option for a free home study for adoption out of foster care. But, it could take 4-6 months, and by then he would most likely have another family.

But, we were advised by the adoption SW here that we should move forward and get a license for adoption from them just incase. She said they're matching all the time - but that most children under 5 are adopted by their foster families.
So, I guess the rout we're already traveling is the most likely way to add to our family.
I think we will still do the adoption home study anyway, just in case.
But that's that.

So we wait....
She said our license should have been here by now, and will be very surprised if it isn't by the end of the week.
We're going to continue to get licensed as SNAP adoptive parents through DAB.

Our SW suggested we look at Mi waiting children if we're going to go through DAB.
So we did, and there was a sibling group of 3 that pulled on our heart strings.
3 yr old boy, and 2 year old twins, one boy one girl.

Karl's prayed about it, and wants to move on them. So, I've called and left a message.
Of course no call back yet.
But, we'll get there at some point.
It would be 5 under 3 for us, so I'm not sure they'll allow it - but we'll see.

It'll be here soon!

My social worker just called and said that all they needed was a copy of my social security card and Lansing is finishing up my paperwork!

She said we could have our license by tomorrow!

My music man...

Ethan has decided that he's going to be not only a drummer, but a guitar player as well...
Here is him playing his "guitar"...

He's getting a real set of drums and a real kid-sized guitar for Christmas, I can't wait to see him open them, he's going to freak, I just know it.
Evelyn is turning 8 months on the 11th.
She is still my little floppy baby.
She refuses to crawl, and hates it when I encourage her to do so. So, I'm letting her be my little blob for now.
She is starting to roll to get what she wants though -so that's a step.
I tried putting her in her play pen the other day while I was cleaning, and she decided all of the sudden she hated it..

She makes the cutest, most dramatic faces when she cries.
She's just like her momma, and likes to watch the squirrels outside the window on the feeder...
I can't believe how big she's getting...

In non-kid related news...
Our rental house had a water filter break, with the water still on, and it got completely flooded, and then frozen.
It's completely un-rentable and un-sellable now...
Not good.

Things have been busy around the house again..
Photo work has been steady, Karl and I are part of a marriage bible study group now, and I have started to go to a new bible study/book club too.
We are waiting patiently for our foster license to come in, as it's been almost 3 weeks now!
But, I've been good, and I haven't called yet.
We were given a crib and bunk beds from Karl's parents, so we're going to do some rearranging.
It was such a blessing.
Bailey has an umbilical hernia, so we had to take her to the vet for a check up and some testing.
Luckily it turned out that it's not intestines or cancerous/infectious material that's protruding through.
They suspect it's just a fatty tumor, and nothing to worry about.... $185 later!
But, I'm glad she's healthy.
I still have Christmas cards to make and send out, along with Ethan's birthday invitations.
But, over all - it's been a pretty nice couple of weeks.